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Constructive principles for gene editing oversight

Nature Biotechnology volume 40, pages 17–18 (2022)Cite this article

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The Rio Declaration of 1992 established the view that biotech can be one of several solutions for resolving the most intractable challenges of our time2. The wisdom of this consensus has been confirmed by the development of a raft of new life-saving medicines, together with bioengineered products aimed at improving agricultural sustainability and economics. Unlike in the biomedical realm, however, the full potential of biotech in agriculture and forestry has yet to be realized. Although public-sector research centers across the developing world initially enthusiastically embraced biotech processes3,4, wide adoption has since been impeded by controversies surrounding the risks posed for human and environmental health.

Although the above controversies continue to defy conventional means of resolution and policy deliberation has stagnated, technology development and refinement have continued apace through the work and dedication of public- and private-sector scientists around the world. As a result, today’s bioengineering technologies are cheaper and more precise; gene-and base-editing technologies have recently been added to the existing suite of gene modification tools, and the fields of genomics and bioinformatics continue to broaden the scope of potential applications.

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References

  1. Gordon, D. R. et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 39, 1055–1057 (2021).

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  3. Atanassov, A. et al. To reach the poor. http://www.ifpri.org/publication/reach-poor (International Food Policy Research Institute, 2004).

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  5. Foote, N. German Green faction pushes for gene editing, overhaul of regulation. Euractiv https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/german-green-faction-pushes-for-gene-editing-overhaul-of-regulation/ (June 2020).

  6. International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Over half of Europe’s endemic trees face extinction. https://www.iucn.org/news/species/201909/over-half-europes-endemic-trees-face-extinction (September 2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FuturaGene, Rehovot, Israel

    Mike May & Stanley Hirsch

  2. Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), Washington, DC, USA

    L. Val Giddings

  3. College of Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA

    Charles DeLisi

  4. NOVIM, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    Daniel Drell

  5. New England Biolabs, Ipswich, MA, USA

    Ari Patrinos & Richard J. Roberts

Authors
  1. Mike May
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  2. L. Val Giddings
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  3. Charles DeLisi
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  4. Daniel Drell
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  5. Ari Patrinos
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  6. Stanley Hirsch
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  7. Richard J. Roberts
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mike May.

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Competing interests

R.J.R works for New England Biolabs, a company that sells research reagents, including restriction enzymes and DNA MTases, to the scientific community. M.M and S.H work for FuturaGene Ltd., a company that employs a number of approaches towards tree improvement, including genetic modification.

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May, M., Giddings, L.V., DeLisi, C. et al. Constructive principles for gene editing oversight. Nat Biotechnol 40, 17–18 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-021-01189-8

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